The Time Sink

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Too much non-computer stuff in my life last week... Gotta' get back to my roots. OMG, that's a gardening word! Help! I don't want to do any more landscaping or watering roots or cutting drainage. I need a day off! Wait... Okay; lose the "s"... That's cool: "root". That's an okay word... I feel better; off we go:

Jakob Nielson's latest Alertbox is out with a focus on page usability (based on an eye-motion study). One portion deals with interlaced browsing. Bo touched on that last year... Must be nice to be validated by Nielson<G>.

...and Matt set me off on yet another tangent with a back-channel comment about X-10 and Linux. No, not the X-11 interface; we're talking about the ubiquitous carrier-current control system that allows users to control home lighting (and darned near everything else) over their existing wiring. For some reason my brain hadn't made the connection that the Linux crowd would be playing in this sandbox. Sheesh; of course they are. ...and at the level I want/need: scripting and web-based controls.

You see, I've been controlling lighting, HVAC and security wherever I've lived for something like thirty years (almost as long a Bob has) with equipment made by X-10, Leviton and even BSR (now there's a memory). The problem with the early systems was the lack of programmability. In 1990, I finally found the system that I use here; it allowed me to set flags, add timers, and expand the basic elements into my type of over-blown extravaganza.

<Aside>Shelley still tells the story of how each of the boys was amused at his first trip to the doctor's office: they each spent the entire time in the room waiting for the MD turning the light switch on and off. ...because they hadn't seen one before. Everything here is pretty much Decora-styled X-10 remotes and modules. I think the only toggle switch is on the garbage disposal (yeah, I could; but why write a line of code for that?).</aside>

Oh yeah, the thread... Well, my controller is a stand-alone; it's no longer in production; the current batch of stand-alones are way too expensive (I just don't need a touch screen); there's a whole slew of programs at Freshmeat; and that firewall-to-be has plenty of spare cycles just waiting to be used...

In honor of the safe return of our esteemed Colleague from The Islands, I bring you the ***** Noon Update *****.

Shawn had a thought about one part of my X-10 plans:

Are you sure you want X10 running on your firewall? If someone broke into your firewall then they would have control of your house. As funny as that could be, (lights blinking on and off a 3am) I wouldn't want it to happen to me.

Shawn

My thoughts:

Uh, and how would that be different from how things are now?

You're quite correct, of course. I really need to throttle myself back and just accept the concept of a firewall as a firewall. I'm just so used to shoehorning as much as I can into a box. ...and it just looks so empty in there. Actually, I'd prefer a router, but I haven't seen anything under $200 for dialup and the parts are essentially free. I probably should just think of it as one more heater for the winter.

True story: one of the cats stepped on the controller at the headboard and triggered off a sequence. We did have lights going on and off at 0dark:30. Fortunately it was the sequence to set the "it's night; everyone's in bed" pattern.

I would like to have control from the coast...,

Dan

Last night we shut the entire household down by 2000. Both of the boys essentially passed out in their beds from too much activity on Monday (not even a minor pillow fight); Shelley and I retired early and just watched the tube. I don't watch much TV as I consider it mindless drivel for the most part; and last night didn't change my opinion much. Still, it was nice to just stretch out and not try to pack anything else into an already full day.

Which was a Good Thing as Tuesday is shaping up just fine for balls, candelabras, and full plates<g>.

A day late and a dollar short? That's as good an explanation as any. I'm a day behind and I have a feeling I'll stay that way for the balance of the week. My Farquhar Special Mark 1:16 Time Machine must need a minor adjustment. ...or maybe two adjustments; one in work.conf and one in home.conf.

On the work front, Janeen was yanked into another project; covering her position overbalanced my stack of marbles and the repercussions continue. At one point today, I was actually able to make some headway on my backlog. ...kinda' ironic; that point occurred thirty minutes before the whistle sounded. Tomorrow won't be a catch-up day; but that's okay because it's my bi-weekly morning out on the town. I'll be off to the local Costco, Smart and Final, and Office Depot stores (and a few others) to pick up the essentials for the smooth operation of my firm. While I do the bulk of my purchasing from my office, the occasional run out is essential for my sanity. I'll make the bulk pickups and they stop by several local shops on the way back to the office. ...you never know when IT might need a price on, well, just about anything. "Always prepared"; that's a good motto.

On the home front, the brief respite is over; it is now time to start the dreaded "clean it all up and make it look pretty again" project. I'm replacing sprinkler heads smashed up by the Bobcat; leveling the front yard back to near the point it started from before said Bobcat made a BMX track out of it; grading new drainage for the back yard; testing lighting for the pool perimeter; and trying to decide what to plant where everything was torn up. ...and trying to select a barbecue<g>. NP; Daynoters are used to twenty six hour days...

We could call it Spawn of the BOFH or perhaps just a practice run. No matter, IT is slowly getting their act together; around 1100 today, they sent out an email to the company advising of a switch in voice mail vendors. ...tonight at 1700. ...details to follow; please pull all your messages as the old system will be cut at that time.

I gave them a "B". They weren't happy with that grade at all. I explained that while six hours notice was not bad, scheduling the notification for 1600 (or even 1545) would still give the appearance of timely notification while severely trashing some people's attempts to leave at the end of their day and totally screwing anyone who left before that time (like the 0700 to 1530 crowd). An 1100 notice also gave those who needed voice recordings/transcriptions of their messages (QI, QA, and Risk Management) time to pull messages off to tape. Still, they likely caught a few people out of the office on vacation or scheduled into off-site meetings (and planning on checking on all those pages after they got home), so it wasn't a total loss.

Let's see... The death toll so far (as measured in Frazzled Nerve Units; not to be confused with Universal Power Units): one IT Director, one IT Lackey, one Purchasing Manager, one Billing Office Manager and several players to be named Monday. I think we'll call them Monday Clark, Monday Edgar, and Monday Lisa; they'll get to play their reindeer games when they get to work bright and early next week.

The day started out poorly enough: I had no dial tone on my line. If you called my line, you got a "Trunk Busy" signal (the fast busy tone). On my end, it sounded like one side of the line had gone to battery. No matter; I can still dial out using my modem line. ...and calls can come back to me on Janeen's line. What? The voice mail system isn't cut in yet? Oh. So if Janeen's on her line, the caller just gets a busy. Okay; I'll have them call back on the modem line and pull LapLink down. What? I cannot receive calls on that line? That series is still on the old vendor's switch? Okay; I'll deal with it. NP; it's Friday. No big deal...

...for about an hour. Then the GM is handed a problem that needs my immediate attention. Hmmm... Voice mail at the other end. She's there; just out. Okay, leave a message including my email address and pager number (she's on the east coast<g>) and I'll just call back until she's in. Contact! Sure, she can fax that right over; the boss will have hard copy and he can hand the problem back to the problem generating service.

...other events transpire. ...and conspire to divert my attention. I realize that I have not received the fax as yet. Hmmm...mmm...mmm... Dial tone at the fax... I wonder what would happen if I actually called it? Ring-no-answer is what will happen. Sheesh; sounds like the same deal as my modem line. Okay; off to the billing office (two fax machines). Short version: ditto; no incoming fax capability. "I thought it was kind of quiet today." and "You know, she usually always gets back to me quicker than that." were the responses. The manager was most un-happy. Kinda' like the purchasing guy. ...'cept I really don't mind when things creep into the Theatre of the Absurd; I live there much of the time anyway.

...and that's how the day went. It would have been hilarious except for the gravity of some of the issues. Erik rattled cages high and low and got some real good results. Donna had recently cut her hair, so she was having some trouble getting a real good handhold to yank any more chunks out. The ex-Telco manager managed a bon mot or two. ...actually, I was of some help; even though things had changed some since I'd turned things over to IT last fall, I still could pull enough bits and bytes from the memory bank between my ears to help out when someone needed an immediate answer to a question and the paperwork didn't reflect reality.

Times have certainly changed. Kids have changed. ...and then again not. My guys think I'm from this really weird place; they cannot quite grasp that I did not have Pokemon when I was a kid. ...and no point in even telling them about only three channels on TV (and why Dad remembers the shows on TVLand when they were first runs).

No, something a little more basic; something's missing. I realized it last night after I got home and left for the kid's school carnival. I was late; the carnival had been going since 1600; and Shelley called and said why bother to come (parking was non-existent; too many people and why didn't I just opt out and relax). Much as I'd have liked to, the husband and father part of me said no; so I changed and walked over to the school.

Okay, I admit it: I was walking in California. ...over a block. I fully expected to be arrested and deported to Washington (I hear they still allow walking in the Pacific Northwest). It was just a mile or so, one major road (some places it would be an expressway: two lanes at 50 mph), some dirt fields, a little warmish (Tuesday was 70F and cloudy; Friday at 1800 it was 91F and sunny). ...and as I was walking past the second dirt lot I realized what was missing: there were no trails. No trails and no accumulation of odd boards and such for the "forts" and "foxholes" I recall from my childhood. Back then, there wasn't a single field in our area that someone hadn't blazed at trail across (and caught hell from his mother about the condition of his jeans) to be followed by countless others taking the new shortcut (with all of the add-ons to each end of the trail). Heck, even in college the grounds crews had a devil of a time keeping up with us; we'd blaze a trail across a lawn; they'd stick up a barricade; we'd bypass the barricade; they'd give up and concrete the path; we'd blaze new trails to the new concrete path; they'd put up barricades...

No trails, not on any of the fields. ...even the really cool one next to the horse corral near the school. <Sigh> I hope I can get all the burrs out of my socks from blazing the trail across that one.

I think summer showed up here in California. ...and I think JHR has the right idea on how to deal with it: sleep the afternoon away. We hit 91F Friday evening when I walked over to the school, 97F Saturday, and 102.7F this afternoon. Just thinking about it makes me want to take a break.

...so I took one. After church we wandered down the road a piece to check out a place that sells super swing sets. ...the kind made out of wood and sturdy enough for even me to use (if I were so inclined<g>). I liked the construction; all 4x4 and better with real chain (not that light duty stuff) and carabiners to attach the chain to the swivel. Definitely Industrial Grade. ...with pricing to match! I think I'd best go price some lumber and see what my brother-in-law is doing next month.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with Dave talking about everything under the sun; I do need to remember to make a list next time<G>. We did cover a lot of ground; I'm wishing him the best as he works through the problem with his arms.